The trials and tribulations of a self employed craft producer living in rural Wales.

Saturday, 21 May 2011

Toolbox Talk - Part 2

can, pens,nozzle from a silicon cartridge gun.

To create some of the shapes you may wish to make, you'll need a collection of dowels. Often ring mandrels are suggested because they offer you a variety of sizes. However so far I have not had to invest in any mandrels I simply wander around the house looking for pens, tubes, and pipes. Felt tip pens offer a small size, marker pens another, and cans and then you probably have a full range. My only complaint is that the pens keep wandering off my workbench, but I suspect that is me 'borrowing' them.

The final item you will need to get you started, is something to hammer on. This was the item I found most challenging. I discovered with my first piece that you can't hammer on wood, because it is too soft. I hammered on tables, stones, and eventually I realised I could clamp a second hammer into a vice and hammer on that.

Obviously it didn't have sawdust on it when I used to use it!

Whatever you choose to hammer on will pattern your material, so ideally you are looking for a smooth surface - although I must admit that did discover some wonderful patterns by accident.

I do now own a tiny jewellery anvil. It only cost around £15 but it is not worth buying when you are just experimenting. It offers me curves and angles to hammer on as well as a flat surface. My jewellery anvil always cheers me up, because the novelty of such a silly sized tool has still not worn off!

Again you can spend plenty of time buying yourself a variety of nylon coated hammers, and patterned heads for the hammer, but in the early stages a normal domestic hammer is fine.

So that's it, that's all you need and if you are lucky all the items were lurking in your household toolbox anyway. Now go and give it ago!

1 comment:

I'm not quite sure how I missed part 1. This is really interesting. I love the industrious way you used the hammer as the 'hammering surface'. It's amazing what you can come up with when you put your mind to it and it works!